This invention relates to a sliding roof system, in particular for motor vehicles, with at least one guide rail, a carriage which is shiftable in the guide rail, a guide element located at the front, which can cooperate with a cover of the sliding roof, and a swing-out lever which likewise can cooperate with the cover and can be moved by the carriage from a starting position into a position swung out.
Such a sliding roof system is known from U.S. Pat. No. 7,784,859, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto and will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. The sliding roof system serves to shift a cover 10 (see FIG. 2) from a closed position, in which it closes an opening in a vehicle roof, via various intermediate positions (for example a ventilator position) into an open position, in which the opening in the vehicle roof substantially is cleared. On the cover 10 a cover holder 12 is mounted, which is shiftably coupled with a guide rail 14 via various components of a swing-out mechanism. In practice, two guide rails 14 and correspondingly two cover holders 12 usually are employed, which both extend parallel to the direction of travel of the vehicle substantially on the left and on the right side of the cover or the roof opening.
For adjusting the cover holder 12 and hence the cover 10 a carriage 16 is provided, which is shiftably mounted in the guide rail and can be shifted along the guide rail by a drive motor (not shown) via a likewise non-illustrated drive cable. In the starting position or closed position of the cover 10, which is shown in FIG. 2, the carriage 16 is in a front position (relative to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle), in which it ensures that both a guide element 18 located at the front and a swing-out lever 20 located at the rear are in a lowered position or starting position. When the carriage is shifted to the rear starting from the front position, the swing-out lever 20 on the one hand is shifted to the rear via a swing-out rod 22. As a result, the swing-out lever 20 is shifted relative to a bearing block 24 with which it is coupled by a swing-out coulisse 26. As a result, the rear end of the swing-out lever 20 coupled with the cover holder 12 is swung out to the top (cf. FIGS. 2 and 3). In addition, the guide element 18 located at the front is lifted, which likewise can easily be seen by a comparison of FIGS. 2 and 3.
At a certain point of the movement to the rear, namely when the swing-out lever 20 has completely been moved to the outside, the carriage 16 is detached from the swing-out rod 22, wherein at the same time the front end of the swing-out rod 22 is stationarily fixed in the guide rail 14 by a latch mechanism 28. Subsequently, the carriage 16 is moved further to the rear, wherein the guide element 18 located at the front is carried along. As a result, the cover holder 12 is shifted relative to the upper end of the swing-out lever 20, so that in a position with completely open cover, as it is shown in FIG. 4, the guide element 18 located at the front is disposed relatively close to the swing-out lever 20 located at the rear.
To provide for the carriage 16 being moved far to the rear together with the guide element 18 for the cover holder 12 located at the front, it is necessary in the prior art to arrange the swing-out lever 20 beside the guideway for the carriage 16 (see FIG. 1, in which the guideway for the carriage 16 is designated with the reference numeral 30). This results in a great overall width of the swing-out mechanism and the guide rail.
The object of the invention consists in developing a sliding roof system as mentioned above to the effect that a more compact construction is obtained in transverse direction. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a sliding roof system with a compact construction in the transverse direction.